CHAPTER X
'MOI NON CONTENT JAPONAIS5
minority problems are something which one associates
more with the Balkan countries than with South Sea Islands,
yet these latter have their own very vexed problems in
that connection. The ironic part is that while in Europe,
minority problems are the natural result of thousands of
years of migration and wars of conquest the European
owners of the South Sea Islands deliberately elected to
create minority problepas in their haste to get as much as
possible out of the colonies in the shortest possible time.
It was the American Civil War that first led to the
introduction of cheap labourers in the Pacific. The disruption
caused by that war resulted in a world shortage of cotton.
In Australia this led to a certain Captain Towns, of
Townsville, Queensland, ;blackbrrding' Melanesian labourers
away from New Hebrides to work on his cotton plantations
in Queensland. In less than eight years over 11,000 New
Hebrideans were 'blackbirded' away to work on Towns"
and other Australian cotton plantations. Any means at all
was used to get the natives away, and a letter written by
Captain Towns gives some idea of the hypocritical methods
used. The letter which was written with the intention of
enlisting the aid of missionaries in his blackbirding venture
reads as follows :
'Should this meet the eye of any gentleman in the sacred
calling, I beg to explain the nature of the voyage upon
which I am about to dispatch the bearer, Captain Graueber
with the schooner Don Juan... I am endeavouring to try
out natives from the island.. .1, with my cotton emigration
(returning them every six to twelve months) will do more
towards civilizing them in one year than you can in ten...
You may be able to point out to the poor, unsuspecting
natives that they will have nothing to fear...'
The danger of creating coloured minorities in Australia
141